Jeremy Allen White was ‘really nervous’ to play another real person in The Social Reckoning

Jeremy Allen White has revealed that he was initially hesitant to star in The Social Reckoning, explaining that his earlier portrayals of real-life people made him nervous to tackle another one.

The 35-year-old plays Jeff Horwitz, the Wall Street Journal reporter who works with Facebook employee Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) to blow the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets, in Aaron Sorkin‘s 2026 follow-up to The Social Network.

Speaking to The Independent at The Social Reckoning’s premiere in London on Tuesday (29 September), White admitted his nerves made it tough to commit to the role after portraying Bruce Springsteen in biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

“When I first met with Aaron [Sorkin], I was so excited to talk about this film and the idea of doing this film, but I had just finished [Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere], and I was really nervous about playing another real person,” he explained.

“I told him that immediately, and I said, ‘I just don’t know if I want my next thing to be playing someone real.’ I didn’t know if I wanted that responsibility entirely.”

Prior to filming The Social Reckoning, White had played Springsteen in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and Kerry Von Erich in heartbreaking wrestling tragedy The Iron Claw, which was released in 2023.

Directed by Scott Cooper, the Springsteen biopic follows The Boss’s journey crafting the 1982 album “Nebraska”. White previously told The Independent he found the pressure of playing the legendary musician “paralysing”.

“I knew if I just pushed it as far as I could, maybe I could fool everybody,” he said at the time.

With this in mind, White said he was initially hesitant about playing a real person again, but Sorkin made it clear that he should craft his own version of Horwitz.

He explained: “With Bruce [Springsteen], it took the most pondering and time for me to make that decision because of how well known he is and people’s feelings about him. I didn’t want to affect any love and admiration that people have. I felt the same with Kerry and The Iron Claw.

“[Sorkin] made it very clear that this is his version of Jeff. This is his world he’s building that this Jeff exists in.”

White added that Sorkin encouraged him to “use all the information you can find on Jeff”, including reading his book and listening to his voice, but said he shouldn’t feel like he has to “sound just like him”.

“Find his physicality, find his movement, make it your own,” he continued. “But use everything that you can find. That became sort of the best of both worlds where I had so much to use, but I could use it as I liked and create my own character around that. So this worked out well in that sense.”

On Tuesday, Madison told The One Show that she initially wanted to reach out to Haugen when she was preparing for her role, but ultimately decided against it as Sorkin was “very clear” that he didn’t want a representation of her on screen.

“He really wanted me to build a character from the script. And so I was worried that I would meet her and fall in love with her and want to try and bridge the gap too much. And so I decided to hold off.”

The Social Reckoning lands in UK cinemas on Thursday 8 October.